most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

some movie reviews

hey everyone

well, Sun City usually provides me with the time and chance to catch up with a few movies. i didn't have the time or the energy to watch too many of the DVDs i took with me, mind, but i did see a couple of films - one at the cinema there, no less!

starting with the big screen, and as there were a couple of cold and windy days whilst we were there (meaning we couldn't take William out and about much for fear of an infection), i took James to the cinema one afternoon to see what i think is called Shrek Forever After, but also seems to have the name Shrek The Final Chapter or sometimes just plain old Shrek 4. i am sure by the time the DVD release rolls around they will have thought of a few new other names for it!

first off, James loved it! unlike our experiences with Ice Age, James happily sat in the cinema and watched it all, quite happily chomping away at popcorn through the film. OK, so a large part of the target market is covered.....

sadly, i think i have to say that this is a cheap and cheerful cash-in on the Shrek films - ill thought out, poorly developed and delivered and really worse than some of those animated "direct to DVD" sequels you get from time to time. for some reason they all but leave out the fun characters you really want to see more of, those being the baby Shreks and indeed the "mutant baby donkey dragons".

as for the plot, well, something about Shrek having a mid-life crisis, and no less than Rumplestiltskin appears to trick him into signing away his existance to become a young, carefree ogre once again, this in turn allowing Rumplestiltskin to take control of Far Away Land. the rest of the film is then Shrek undoing this deal.

it might not be as bad as i implied, but it certainly isn't as great as the first three were. in-joke references to somewhat older films (Gladiator and Troy in particular) suggest the makers have run out of ideas, but nonetheless there remain one or two really funny moments to make you laugh out loud.

unless you insist on wasting money on this whole "3D experience" rubbish, you are all the same advised to wait until the inevitable Christmas release of the DVD before you see this.

on the subject of DVDs, however, one i made sure that i watched was Doomsday. having been impressed by the first two films from Neil Marshall; the frenetic Dog Soldiers and the absolutely terrifying The Descent, i was looking forward to seeing what he did next, although i had heard one or two ho hum reviews of this.

i have and indeed hate to admit that the ho hum reviews are mostly right. for such a clever, original director this film is really little more than 28 Days/Weeks Later mixed with Mad Max 2. however, as it is a fast paced, well made homage to those films, it's not too bad a thing.

if i was given a film crew, a pile of cash and a free hand, right, i too would probably decide that the best thing to do with it is to recreate the car chase scene from Mad Max 2, only making the deaths more visible and putting Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood on the soundtrack. as this is exactly what Neil Marshall does, i cannot and will not have too much said against the film.

i raised an eyebrow when i got the DVD of Doomsday for i noticed that it had an "18" certificate awarded to it. now, whereas in the UK the threshold for giving the highest age restriction to a film tends to be a gent tipping his hat to a lady without permission, here it is rare than anything short of the more (um) artistic, disrobed type of adult entertainment that gets this certificate. it is thoroughly well deserved, it has to be said, as it is laced and loaded with mindless, senseless violence. i am not sure when i last saw so many decapitations in one film, let alone such a wide variety of how they were done.

Doomsday is certainly not for everyone to watch (although as my Mum sat through Law Abiding Citizen she may enjoy this), but for those who like mostly brainless all out action once in a while, this is a winner!

right then, that'll do for films for now. i will try and watch one or two things in the near future! i see that The Expendables is on the way at last, fingers crossed i get to see it soon!